Sussex head to Leicester for penultimate Championship match

Sussex start their penultimate LV= Insurance County Championship fixture of the season against Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground on Sunday.

There will be two changes to the side that took on Middlesex earlier this week, with George Garton and Dan Ibrahim replaced by Joe Sarro and 18-year-old Academy batsman and left-arm spinner Tom Hinley.

Ibrahim has joined up with England U19s for their ongoing one-day series against West Indies, while Garton will remain at The 1st Central County Ground to prepare for Vitality Blast Finals Day alongside the majority of the T20 squad. Hinley has signed a short-term contract for the final two Championship matches of the season.

Jamie Atkins (shoulder) and Tom Clark (knee) remain unavailable through injury, although Atkins will travel with the squad to Grace Road where he will continue his work with the club’s medical and strength and conditioning staff.

After defeats in their opening two matches in division three, Sussex are in sixth place with 20 points, 4.5 points behind Derbyshire in fifth and 7.5 points behind tomorrow's hosts, Leicestershire.

Sussex squad:

Tom Haines (capt.), Ben Brown, Jack Carson, Oli Carter, Henry Crocombe, Tom Hinley, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Sean Hunt, Ali Orr, Delray Rawlins, Joe Sarro

View from the coach’s office

Head Coach Ian Salisbury reflected on the defeat to Middlesex: “We lost the toss, which I think turned out to be important, but if we want to improve as a side, we’re going to have to learn how to bowl on these wickets on days one and two. That said, I don’t think we lost the game on those days, even if winning the game became unlikely.

“Losing six wickets for 12 runs in our first innings was where we lost it, and that came about not just because of good bowling but because of some poor shots as well. Tom Haines, Ben Brown and Fynn Hudson-Prentice showed how to go about things and we can all learn from that example as we use the experience to get better.

“My view is that we played on an outstanding cricket wicket. If you want to prepare cricketers that can cut it at the highest level, you need to play on these sorts of wickets.”

On Tom Haines: “When you see two international openers in [Middlesex’s Sam] Robson and [Mark] Stoneman applauding a young player for becoming the first player to a thousand runs, you realise what an achievement it is. Those two guys know how hard it is to open the batting in this country and clearly had a lot of respect for Tom’s accomplishment.

“It stems from the hard work Tom has put in, not just this summer, but all last winter with hitting hundreds of balls in training. He’s reaping the rewards for all those hours he’s put in and what a fine example he is for our young batsmen coming through.

“For Tom himself, he’s a 22-year-old English opener doing exceptionally well. Who knows where that could take him?”

On Dan Ibrahim joining James Coles and Archie Lenham in the England U19 camp: “Dan has done extraordinarily well and deserves a chance to join our other two lads and represent his country with the under-19s. If you look at the England greats of recent times, many if not most of them have got that on their cricketing CVs.”

On George Garton remaining in Hove to prepare for Vitality Blast Finals Day: “You have to prepare fast bowlers properly for the different forms of the game and it was always the plan with George to play either exclusively or predominantly as a batter against Middlesex and then miss the Leicestershire match to focus on getting ready to bowl at Edgbaston next Saturday.”

On Jamie Atkins travelling with the squad: “Jamie is getting closer to being able to play again. He’s worked extremely hard after his shoulder injury, and he’ll travel with us to carry on his efforts to get match fit.”

Leicestershire

After a fifth-place finish in Group 2 (W2, L4, D4), Leicestershire have begun the divisional stage of this year’s Championship with a 132-run defeat to Kent at home and a draw against Derbyshire at Derby. That leaves the East Midlanders in fourth place in Division 3, with 27.5 points.

Left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson has been the main contributor with the ball in the first two divisional fixtures, taking 11 wickets, including nine in the defeat against Kent. Lewis Hill scored 113 in Leicestershire’s only innings in this week’s draw against Derbyshire, with Sam Evans, George Rhodes, Chris Wright and Harry Swindells all scoring half centuries as the side racked up 528 batting first. There were also fifties for Ben Mike and former Sussex-loanee Ed Barnes against Kent.

Hill has been the Running Foxes’ top-scorer in the campaign as a while, scoring 757 runs in his 19 innings, including two centuries.  Swindells has 624 runs and also two tons, while Evans has scored three hundreds on his way to 591 runs.

Parkinson is top among the Leicestershire wicket taker with 43 dismissals so far. Veteran seamer Chris Wright is not far behind with 40 at an impressive average of 22.85.

Squad: TBA

Match Information

Play is scheduled to begin at 10.30am on all four days. Tickets are available from Leicestershire County Cricket Club here.

Supporters can also watch the match via the live stream on the Sussex Cricket Match Centre which also provides clips of key moments, an interactive scorecard and live statistics.